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Puerto Rican/Latino Studies: Philosophy and Teaching Practice

The
Puerto Rican/Latino Studies faculty has responded to the increasing
number of students enrolling in Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino
Studies without the life experience and personal involvement for
studying the subject matters (as was common several years ago) by
developing courses and teaching methods to help students discover what
is universally significant in the subject matter and facilitate
education, in addition to the earning of credits. The comparative
approach that inspired the department's establishment provided an
effective way of enabling students to understand the forces that
brought about racism and colonization. Comparing knowledge about
peoples having a common experience in different times and places has
enabled students with little or no previous exposure to comprehend
abstract patterns and concepts, such as prejudice, segregation,
acculturation, and marginality.

With
inspiration from Eugenio María de Hostos, Pedro Albizu Campos and
similar thinkers, theoretical paradigms were developed for teaching the
fundamentals of culture, social studies, history and literature from
Puerto Rican Studies in introductory courses. Some 5,000 students have
been prepared for more advanced courses by studying the Puerto Rican
experience within the context of two basic comparative paradigms from
the Latin American experience in relation to the United States:

A. the causes and effects of structurally induced migration: AFPL 102: Latino Communities in New York City

B. the social effects of military and political dominance:AFPL 103: Conquered Peoples in America

This
paradigm involved comparisons between the colonization and racism from
previous conquest by Spain with the situation of groups made part of
the United States by war and occupation, such as Native Americans,
Hawaiians, Chicanos, and Filipinos.